Google has lost $100 billion as a result of an AI error; as mistakes go, that’s a fairly sizable one, right? On Twitter, Google was showcasing Bard, their swanky new AI service, along with a brief explanation of how it functions.
Bard- An AI Service
According to the publication, “Bard is an experimental LaMDA-powered conversational AI service. It is a platform for curiosity and can aid in the simplification of complex topics. A competitor to Microsoft’s effort to update its Bing search engine with new AI. Google will be hoping that its current testing phase will catch any remaining issues. Here, you can observe the service in action and how everything goes wrong:
It also included a clip of someone asking Bard: “What recent discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope can I share with my 9-year-old?”
The AI service responded with a range of responses, including: “In 2023, the JWST discovered a handful of galaxies dubbed ‘green peas. They give them this name because they resembled peas in size, shape, and greenness.
The telescope also recorded photos of galaxies that are “nearly 13 billion years old,” according to the information provided.
Weakness in AI’s Skills
The final item on the shortlist was factually incorrect, which indicates a weakness in the AI’s skills. The error, which is still visible on Google’s Twitter website and has been seen more than 1.5 million times as of this writing, was quickly caught by astute followers.
“JWSR took the exact photographs of a planet outside of our solar system,” the ‘fact’ stated. Exoplanets are the name given to these far-off planets. Exo is Greek for “from outside.”
The error occurred only a few days after the business introduced Bard, its eagerly awaited challenger to ChatGPT, and started a marketing push to get the public ready for its full rollout in the upcoming weeks. Not only is Microsoft’s updated Bing search engine competing with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but it also uses the same so-called large language model technology.
Because they can respond to inquiries with more in-depth and conversational responses than just a list of links, such an AI service is thought to have the potential to revolutionize the way we search the internet, according to both Google and Microsoft.
Astonishing, huh? Yes, but also incorrectly, I suppose.
Discovery of Twitter Users
Because, according to NASA, the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope captured the first picture ever of a planet outside of our solar system back in 2004. Twitter users discover this error, as you might expect, and Grant Tremblay from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics wrote: “I’m sure Bard will be spectacular, but for the record: JWST did not take ‘the very first image of a planet outside our solar system. Instead, Chauvin et al. (2004) used adaptive optics and the VLT/NACO to create the initial image.
Bruce Macintosh also discovered this error, as director of the University of California Observatories and a member of the team that captured the first pictures of exoplanets. He stated in a post: “It feels like you should find a better example. Speaking as someone who imaged an exoplanet 14 years before JWST was launched.”
Drop in Share Price
Following the tweet, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, experienced a drop in share price of about 8%, which, according to Forbes, reduced the market worth of the firm by almost $100 billion (£82,466,000,000).
“This underlines the significance of a rigorous testing procedure, something that we’re kicking off this week,” a Google official told the newspaper.
I suppose it’s better late than never. Microsoft is optimistic about changing search. Even while Google has been cautious in its chatbot rollout, only providing a very limited version of the program up to this point, Bard’s error is still a problematic situation.
Wrapping Up
One of the primary questions surrounding these AI service is whether their responses are as accurate as they are realistic. ChatGPT has been shown to frequently speak with the same level of assurance when making mistakes. Both Bard and Microsoft’s revamped Bing bot, which was also unveiled this week, are intended to allay those concerns by offering references and staying updated with events in real time. The updated Bing has been positively received since its deployment started on Monday and comes after the maker of Windows invested enormous sums of money in OpenAI. Even though during the past 25 years, Google has come to be associated with web searching, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella assertively said on Tuesday that “the race starts now” as he unveiled plans to alter the search interface.
